"What"s it to yuh?" he repeated his formula.
"I want to know."
"I get to needing it about once a day. Three grains will carry me by."
"All right; that"s what I want to know. Now listen to me. I"m custodian of this dope, and you"ll get your regular ration as long as you stick with me."
"I can always hop a train. This ain"t the only hamlet on the map," he reminded me.
"That"s always what you can do if you find we can"t work together.
That"s where you"ve got me if my proposition doesn"t sound good."
"What is your proposition?" he asked after a moment.
"Before I tell you, I"m going to give you a few pointers on what you"re up against. I don"t know how much you know about Old Man Hooper, but I"ll bet there"s plenty you _don"t_ know about."
I proceeded to tell him something of the old man"s methods, from the "boomerang" to vicarious murder.
"And he gets away with it?" asked Brower when I had finished.
"He certainly does," said I. "Now," I continued, "you may be solid as a brick church, and your plans may be water-tight, and old Hooper may kill the fatted four-year-old, for all I know. But if I were you, I wouldn"t go sa.s.shaying all alone out to Hooper"s ranch. It"s altogether _too_ blame confiding and innocent."
"If anything happens to me, I"ve left directions for those contracts to be recorded," he pointed out. "Old Hooper knows that."
"Oh, sure!" I replied, "just like that! But one day your trustworthy friend back yonder will get a letter in your well-known hand-write that will say that all is well and the goose hangs high, that the old man is a prince and has come through, and that in accordance with the nice, friendly agreement you have reached he--your friend--will hand over the contract to a very respectable lawyer herein named, and so forth and so on, ending with your equally well-known John Hanc.o.c.k."
"Well, that"s all right."
"I hadn"t finished the picture. In the meantime, you will be getting out of it just one good swift kick, and that is all."
"I shouldn"t write any such letter. Not "till I felt the feel of the dough."
"Not at first you wouldn"t," I said, softly. "Certainly not at first.
But after a while you would. These renegade Mexicans--like Hooper"s Ramon, for example--know a lot of rotten little tricks. They drive pitch-pine splinters into your legs and set fire to them, for one thing.
Or make small cuts in you with a knife, and load them up with powder squibs in oiled paper--so the blood won"t wet them--and touch them off.
And so on. When you"ve been shown about ten per cent, of what old Ramon knows about such things, you"ll write most any kind of a letter."
"My G.o.d!" he muttered, thrusting the ridiculous derby to the back of his head.
"So you see you"d look sweet walking trustfully into Hooper"s claws.
That"s what that newspaper ad was meant for. And when the respectable lawyer wrote that the contract had been delivered, do you know what would happen to you?"
The ex-jockey shuddered.
"But you"ve only told me part of what I want to know," I pursued. "You got me side-tracked. This daughter of the dead pardner--this girl, what about her? Where is she now?"
"Europe, I believe."
"When did she go?"
"About three months ago."
"Any other relatives?"
"Not that I know of."
"H"m," I pondered. "What does she look like?"
"She"s about medium height, dark, good figure, good-looking all right.
She"s got eyes wide apart and a wide forehead. That"s the best I can do.
Why?"
"Anybody heard from her since she went to Europe?"
"How should I know?" rejoined Brower, impatiently. "What you driving at?"
"I think I"ve seen her. I believe she"s not in Europe at all. I believe she"s a prisoner at the ranch."
"My aunt!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Brower. His nervousness was increasing--the symptoms I was to recognize so well. "Why the h.e.l.l don"t you just shoot him from behind a bush? I"ll do it, if you won"t."
"He"s too smooth for that." And I told him what Hooper had told me. "His hold on these Mexicans is remarkable. I don"t doubt that fifty of the best killers in the southwest have lists of the men Old Man Hooper thinks might lay him out. And every man on that list would get his within a year--without any doubt. I don"t doubt that partner"s daughter would go first of all. You, too, of course."
"My aunt!" groaned the jockey again.
"He"s a killer," I went on, "by nature, and by interest--a bad combination. He ought to be tramped out like a rattlesnake. But this is a new country, and it"s near the border. I expect he"s got me marked. If I have to I"ll kill him just like I would a rattlesnake; but that wouldn"t do me a whole lot of good and would probably get a bunch a.s.sa.s.sinated. I"d like to figure something different. So you see you"d better come on in while the coming is good."
"I see," said the ex-jockey, very much subdued. "What"s your idea? What do you want me to do?"
That stumped me. To tell the truth I had no idea at all what to do.
"I don"t want you to go out to Hooper"s ranch alone," said I.
"Trust me!" he rejoined, fervently.
"I reckon the first best thing is to get along out of town," I suggested. "That black bag all the plunder you got?"
"That"s it."
"Then we"ll go out a-horseback."
We had lunch and a smoke and settled up with McCloud. About mid-afternoon we went on down to the livery corral. I knew the keeper pretty well, of course, so I borrowed a horse and saddle for Brower. The latter looked with extreme disfavour on both.
"This is no race meet," I reminded him. "This is a means of transportation."
"Sorry I ain"t got nothing better," apologized Meigs, to whom I had confided my companion"s profession--I had to account for such a figure somehow. "All my saddle hosses went off with a mine outfit yesterday."
"What"s the matter with that chestnut in the shed?"
"He"s all right; fine beast. Only it ain"t mine. It belongs to Ramon."